I made this mistake and I was required to do some unnecessary repairs that on the inspection were "optional" and he felt they were required.

We have protocols we can follow to encourage the neighboring owner to act but the first step is the initial warning letter (everything needs to be documented), then a call to a hearing with the Board, after which the Board can decide to impose potential fines.

There are no signs that the tank has any issues (no visible oil in the soil at the surface and no smell of residual oil in the area), and I'm worried that a soil test is only going to cause unnecessary costs.  

They would be confused and could cause them unnecessary problems and wondering who do I call now, who do I pay rent etc....

Unless you have employees a LLC is likely unnecessary.

HOA costs will cut significantly into your cashflow and associations can impose all sorts of rules and fees to restrict the number of rentals.  

If you put extra money on the left end, the only thing that changes is that the lever tilts and the property slides closer towards you faster, but you are now controlling the property using much more weight on the left end (unnecessary). 

.$300 dollars may not seem like much but business does not operate based in building in unnecessary on going losses.

I am sure he will welcome the unnecessary stress and as he gets more involved he will probably learn to resent you and the decision to support you. 

My friend has a situation where he bought a condo in SF about 10 years ago, rented the whole time.... Now he got a new tenant that is noisy/loud and caused issues with neighbors because of that.... HOA is now trying t...